After clinically analysing the rich theoretical literature on the issue of citizens’ rights and evaluating the salient arguments of every significant scholar, author Dipankar Gupta concludes that the “equality of states” and “equal access to all socially valuable assets” are the fundamental characteristics that define “citizenship” in a democracy.
The goal of modernity is achieved only when the equality of individuals as the foundational principle of social relations is firmly established, he asserts, forming a logical link between equal citizens and their equal access to basic universal services that have to be provided by a liberal democratic state. In other
